Frank Burlison

MANHATTAN BEACH, CA – In a generation when the lineups of many exceptional – if not most, a cynic would suggest – high school basketball teams are heavily impacted by transfers, one Southern California squad sitting on a 20-1 record is the exception.

“I’ve got pictures at home of us together when we were 10 years old, playing in camps or on the same (youth) team,” Mira Costa High guard Will Householter said Tuesday night of he and his fellow three seniors in the Mustangs’ lineup after their 66-47 Bay League, home-court victory over Redondo Union in front of an approximate 2,400.

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SPRINGFIELD, MA – With a little more than five minutes to go in its Spalding HoopHall Classic game Monday afternoon, the Sierra Canyon High boys’ basketball team seemed primed to make the cross-country trip back to the San Fernando Valley with a whole lot of momentum going into the remainder of its Mission League schedule.

But . . . that didn’t prove to be the case.

A spinning layup by junior Isaiah Elohim with 5:24 to go gave Coach Andre Chevalier’s team a 10-point advantage (42-32) over Miami Columbus in Springfield College’s Blake Arena.

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SPRINGFIELD, MA – Prolific Prep, the program based in California’s “wine country” (Napa, located about 50 miles north of San Francisco) that draws top-flight talent from everywhere, continued its dominance of other “prep school” competition – the nationwide – Sunday night during the Spalding Hoophall Classic at Springfield College.

Its record went to 21-zip, without much in the way of a fuss or muss from Westtown (located just outside of Philadelphia), 71-33, in a contest that was a competitive as the margin of victory suggests.

Five-foot-10 Trey Green, who signed with Xavier in November, scored 14 points with five rebounds and four assists.

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SPRINGFIELD, MA – There have been trips to Texas, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina and, finally, — with the nationally televised 66-62 victory over Camden of New Jersey Saturday night in the Spalding HoopHall Classic – Massachusetts.

And there were “in-state, road trips” to San Diego and Sacramento.

But the “barn-storming”, of sorts, isn’t quite over for Coach Josh Giles’ Corona Centennial basketball team.

“We’ve got to go to northern California next week (Saturday, for a game against Richmond Salesian in a multi-game event),” said Giles, after his team improved to 17-3 with the victory, over the team led by University of Kentucky recruits D.J.

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LA VERNE, CA – It’s taken a while for me to compile this list – the 112-team, five-day Classic at Damien ended on the night of Dec. 30, after all.

But, instead of labeling it procrastination, I prefer to call it well-thought out and reasoned analysis.

  Cool the smirks . . .

Anyway, here are my choices for the 13 players who most impressed me when I watched them play during the top “real high school” post-holiday tournament in the west.

First, the caveats:

*My selections came only from among the players I was able to watch from courtside.

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